What's really interesting about this thread is that a thread that is a day older about buying stuff at Home Depot got far more responses (make that "more than zero responses"), as did a thread posted the same day about driving a mile on a ZTR. This is quite an eye-opener about the definition of professionalism here at Lawnsite.

All things considered, anyone who goes off about "scrubs" can expect a real nasty broadside from me, assuming I bother to respond at all. If you all could stop touching yourselves in the pants about equipment and scrubs for five minutes, maybe you'd make more money. What a bunch of lunatic-fringe crackpots and wannabes.

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Mark

Ham and eggs. A day's work for a chicken; a lifetime commitment for a pig.

What's really interesting about this thread is that a thread that is a day older about buying stuff at Home Depot got far more responses (make that "more than zero responses"), as did a thread posted the same day about driving a mile on a ZTR. This is quite an eye-opener about the definition of professionalism here at Lawnsite.

All things considered, anyone who goes off about "scrubs" can expect a real nasty broadside from me, assuming I bother to respond at all. If you all could stop touching yourselves in the pants about equipment and scrubs for five minutes, maybe you'd make more money. What a bunch of lunatic-fringe crackpots and wannabes.

Interesting question. I have been wondering about that myself - what happens if you just leave it - will a healthy and regularly overseeded fescue lawn outcompete orchard grass? Another interesting question - why does fescue seed so often have orchard grass seed in it?

Anyway - my suggestion: pull it. For some reason most LCOs would never in a million years pull a weed and neither would anyone else - but this is often the best and easiest and cheapest solution to a weed problem. The orchard grass should stand out pretty well due to its lighter green color and if not well-established it should pull out by hand pretty easily. If it doesn't just pull right up, a dandilion fork should do it. If you leave it, it will spread (by seed). If there's just a little bit of it (like less than a few hundred plants) then pulling it now should only take a few minutes and may prevent the problem from getting out of hand. It would probably take longer to spot spray it than to pull it.

Anyway - my suggestion: pull it. For some reason most LCOs would never in a million years pull a weed and neither would anyone else - but this is often the best and easiest and cheapest solution to a weed problem. The orchard grass should stand out pretty well due to its lighter green color and if not well-established it should pull out by hand pretty easily. If it doesn't just pull right up, a dandilion fork should do it. If you leave it, it will spread (by seed). If there's just a little bit of it (like less than a few hundred plants) then pulling it now should only take a few minutes and may prevent the problem from getting out of hand. It would probably take longer to spot spray it than to pull it.

There's an awful lot to pull by hand and it's pretty well rooted. It'd take me at least half a day and I just don't have that kind of time, plus it'd be cheaper for the customer if I just hit it with glyphosate and reseeded.

You're right, the orchard grass is conspicuous: spectacularly so. I talked to them about aerating and seeding in late September, so I think I'll recommend spot-treating the orchardgrass early in September.

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Mark

Ham and eggs. A day's work for a chicken; a lifetime commitment for a pig.